Sunshine
by Jax Creation
Summary: Joey is the newest addition to the Cullen family, struggling to change his ways to become vegetarian and control his ability as a human magnet. Then there's Holly who hates vampires with a passion and can nullify his vampiric traits. Full summary inside.


**Extended Summary  
(because 225 characters is not enough...)**

_Joseph "Joey" Knight is the newest edition to the Cullen family. Under the guise of being Renesme's cousin who's run away from home due to family problems (which is in fact, partially true), Joey's going to have to teach himself how to become a vegetarian and go to school like a good little boy but it's going to be harder for him than for the others. Joey's special ability is human magnetism and anyone within its reach will automatically want to become closer to him, it was a fine ability when he was in L.A. but here in Forks where biting is a big no-no, it's nothing short of a curse._

_But then he meets **her**__; Holly French is a mortal transfer student with the ability to nullify the superhuman traits all vampires possess - including the thirst for blood. After discovering what she can do, Joey decides that he's better off sticking around her but it's not going to be easy to convince Holly that he's a _good _vampire; she's got a dark, bloody past and she doesn't want anything to do with him and his kind. But Joey's determined, he's going to befriend her - even if he does have to put up with having dictionaries chucked at his head for the rest of eternity._

**Please read and review. ^^

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**Chapter One: Hold My Hand?**

It was yet another dreary morning in the quiet town of Forks. The usually present grey thunderheads shielded the sun from view, bringing with them the threat of an early morning drizzle as lightening jumped across the sky and thunder rumbled overhead. Joseph "Joey" Knight glanced at the gloomy skies through the lenses of his sunglasses, there more for decoration than actual usefulness, and smiled as he stepped out of his luxurious, black BMW. He removed the shades and took a deep breath, sampling the various scents of the students now gawking at him from wherever they stood in the school lot; a mistake he realised as the fragrances of blood engulfed him and his animal instincts threatened to take over. Gradually the smells began to overwhelm him, his mouth watered as the sea of humans started moving towards him. This place was heaven.

Realising what was happening Joey forced himself to remain still and control the urge that had governed his new life for the past thirty years and shrunk the radius of his magnetism field as he'd been taught to do by his benefactors. The people he'd been involuntarily drawing in to him paused; some flushed with embarrassment at their own daring, others look confused, unsure of what they had been doing while the rest barely even noticed that they were being affected and stood there looking blank. They hovered, a few edged forwards a little, Joey's magnetism still imprinted into their minds. Joey stopped breathing. If they got too close while he wasn't quite in control of his thirst then he would blow his cover in one fell swoop. To his relief the heavens answered his prayers and the skies let loose a sudden downpour. Everyone who had been under the young vampire's spell shook themselves free from their after-effect stupors and fled to find cover.

When he had himself under control he leaned against the car door, completely unperturbed by the rain, and commented to the girl emerging from the passenger seat, "Perfect day, isn't it?"

"Perfect for _you_, maybe," Renesme Cullen replied, pushing her bronze waves of hair out of her eyes so that she could frown at the lightening-ridden grey sky above, blinking as water droplets landed on her perfect face. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a small umbrella to shelter herself from the rain. "On the other hand," she continued, "It's horrible weather for the other students and I who, personally, prefer being in the warm, open sun rather than soaked to the skin."

For a moment, Joey was confused, his old lifestyle conflicting with the lifestyle he was trying to slip into. Back when he was stalking the streets of Seattle, rainy days had indicated a feast; he went unnoticed in his black trench coat, standing within a narrow alcove in the shadows and he could seize anyone who walked by. The thirst surged at this memory. _No. _He waited for it to fade. Rainy days were good days, only because he could go out to _mingle_ with the humans and get used to their presence – nothing more.

"-oey, _Joey_!"

He abandoned his thoughts. "Yes?"

"Can we please go inside?" requested Renesme, walking around the car and stopping in front of Joey, just inside his magnetism bubble; the effects of his ability began to show instantly. Her grumpy demeanour inspired by the rain change instantly, a flirtatious smile flitted across her face and (involuntarily) she fluttered her eyelashes at him. "It's cold and wet out here…" she said in a whiny voice.

Joey pressed his lips together, stood upright and took a step to the left, allowing Renesme to recover her senses. "You want to go inside?" he repeated.

She blinked rapidly, wondering what on earth she was doing and then realising the cause. She coughed to hide her embarrassment and replied seriously with a small trace of irritation, "Yes, inside. Now please try to control yourself."

"Yes Renesme, please do. Honestly I'm your cousin, that sort of thing is illegal," retorted Joey without missing a beat a small, sly grin playing across his lips; she always got embarrassed after getting caught up in his power and he _did_ enjoy embarrassing her.

"Oh, shut up Joseph?"

"If we're going inside, will you hold my hand for support?" he asked innocently.

She frowned at him, the last time she'd fallen for that her parents had walked in on her shamelessly flirting with him under the influence of his power. Needless to say they had not been amused - well, they had. They'd been very amused actually. The frown turned into a scowl as she replied dryly, "I wonder what Jacob would have to say about that comment." Jacob would have Joey's head if he heard the newest vegetarian vampire in the Cullen house teasing his Renesme.

The vampire grinned at her, ignoring the threat in that sentence. "Then who'll protect the helpless humans from big bad Joey?"

Renesme ignored his silliness. "If you go for the attack, I promise to restrain you."

"Then that'll blow both of our covers and implicate your family. I'd rather that you held my hand."

"If _you_ went on a rampage we'd be implicated anyway; you're one of us now and I am _not_ going to hold your hand. I'm not an idiot."

Joey was tempted to envelop her with his ability so that she'd _want_ to hold his hand, but when she got out of range she would take his head off and then set Jacob on him. He turned the idea away. The last time he'd had a fight against Jacob and Renesme they'd handed his ass to him. A moment of fun wasn't worth getting the beating of a lifetime from a powerful half-vampire and her pet werewolf. He smirked silently to himself, there were other ways to tease the beautiful girl; he'd get his opportunity the next time she _willingly_ stepped back into his zone.

Almost as if she suspected something, Renesme took a step back and gave him a firm look that said quite clearly, '_behave yourself_.'

Joey spread his hands. "What?"

"You know what."

Another gesture of innocence on Joey's part.

Renesme sighed, "Nevermind, just follow me. How wide is your magnetism net?"

"Just over a metre, I can't make it any smaller."

"You'll have to work on that," she commented tartly. "If you can't switch it off or at least minimise how many people it affects then you're going to find it hard to convert yourself to my family's way of life with everybody under the influence of your useless ability, hanging all over you." She eyed the dark haired vampire beside her and told him firmly, "You _will_ learn to control it."

"Yes ma'am!" responded Joey giving her a mock salute.

Renesme sighed and walked off towards the office. For someone who was (technically) older than her own mother, Joseph Knight was _very_ immature; he was sixteen on the outside but he'd been frozen at that age for almost thirty years. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as she strutted beside her; amber irises full of mischief, dark hair soaked with raindrops and a cheeky grin across his vampiricly handsome face. He caught her looking and smirked, taking a step closer to her; quickly she stepped away, silently wishing that she had her mother's mind-shielding gift so that she wouldn't be affected by this childish man's power.

"You stay one metre away from me at all times," ordered Renesme. She was expecting a smart remark back from him and was surprised when he simply nodded and slowed his pace a fraction. His expression hadn't changed a bit, but there was something in his eyes that betrayed the cheerful relaxation on his face; Joey was anxious.

"You'll be fine," she said confidently, after a moment she added, "Just… try not to breathe."

Joey stared at her and muttered sarcastically, "Gee, thanks. Because that's reassuring."

"If it all gets too much, even with the not breathing, then just bolt back home. It worked for Dad when he first met Mum."

"Okay Renesme; will you hold my hand for reassurance?"

She almost started reaching for him but stopped herself in time. Glaring, she retorted, "I _am not_ falling for that one again."

Joey sighed and ran a hand through his long dark hair disappointedly, "So close."

"I would hit you if I could. Now let's get your paperwork so I can ditch you."

"Aw, Nessie don't be like that!"

"Would you stop being such a child!?"

Joey hid a grin as he continued to antagonise the half-vampire all the way into the reception office. Experimentally he allowed himself to keep breathing, to see if he could control himself. He was somewhat relieved to find that it wasn't too hard; but then again the only humans in the room were the lady behind the desk and two students loitering near the heater. His papers collected he reluctantly followed Renesme into the corridor.

_Steel yourself Joey, _he ordered, _You're about to enter the corridors of hell._

The mixture of scents that drifted through the door hit Joey like a ton of bricks. He balled his hands into fists and clenched his jaw to stop himself from lunging at the nearest person with his teeth bared.

_Shit,_ thought the vampire, reeling away from the crowd and stepping backwards into the reception office, accidently treading on the feet of someone standing behind him.

"Ouch! Watch it, you idiot!"

Joey spun to face the person he'd stepped into and winced as she shoved him hard in the chest. He froze, confused; _Wait…_ _did that __**hurt**__?_

Alarmed and embarrassed at the very thought of being hurt by a human he looked over the angry, young woman who'd pummelled him and raised both his eyebrows at her. She was a tiny little thing, the top of her auburn head barely reaching Joey's shoulders. Blue-grey eyes framed by long lashes glared angrily up at him and her perfect crimson lips were pressed into a cold, hard scowl.

Well that was something; Joey had never been glared at by someone standing so close to him since he'd become a vampire, particularly not by a human. The auburn-haired chick was definitely in range of his magnetic field yet the irritation on her face had yet to fade. He may have just imagined it but for an instant the resentment was momentarily replaced by an expression of utmost horror. But when he checked again she looked even more infuriated than before. How peculiar.

"Sorry for stepping on you," said Joey sincerely without removing his gaze from her face.

"You should be," hissed the girl through clenched teeth and pushed past him into the busy corridor.

No longer distracted by the outraged red-head Joey was ambushed once again by the jumble of human scents rolling off the students. He leaned against the wall, shoving his knuckles into his mouth to focus his mind away from the need to hunt.

Renesme came back into the room looking worried. "Joey, are you okay?"

"Do I look okay to you?" he hissed back panicked; almost doubling over as he repressed his instincts.

"You'll be fine, just _don't breathe_."

He obeyed, forcing his lungs to still and locking his muscles to prevent himself from jumping anyone, his whole body shaking from the effort. He almost sighed as he thought about how close a call that had been but stopped, realising that it wouldn't be such a good move.

"Joe?"

"I'm good," he said, straightening up and removing his hand from his mouth. A moment later the very familiar, cheeky smile took hold again as he asked, "Will you hold my hand now?"

Renesme smiled with relief inside; if he was already making jokes then the danger had passed. She forced herself to give him a stern look and replied firmly, "No." A little more gently she continued, "Ready to try again?"

"Aye captain, let us wade the sea of temptation!"

"Oh, shut up Joseph; and whatever you do, _do not breathe in_."

---

Joey was enjoying school. When he'd been human he hadn't like it much at all, he'd cut school more often than he'd attended it – not that his parents had given a damn whether he wagged or not, they were both too busy cheating on each other to notice what their son was doing. He doubted that they even knew that he'd been missing for the past thirty years, on account of having turned into a vampire. But at any rate he was having quite a bit of fun.

He'd managed to keep himself from breathing so his thirst was mostly contained. He was rather proud of himself, actually. Renesme was only in one of the classes but one class was enough for her to know he was somewhat on his way to becoming a 'vegetarian'. Still she did insist on walking him to each of his classes, much to the disappointment of the people who had unavoidably been caught by Joey's magnetism and had wanted to pump him for information about himself between periods.

"Last class of the day!" he proclaimed to Renesme like a child who'd just found the toy car in a box of cereal. "Aren't you proud of me? I haven't been breathing at all!"

"_Very_," replied Renesme dryly; she would have been nicer and congratulated him but she didn't think that he needed an ego boost. "Just don't get over-confident or you'll slip up."

"How about a hug for my good work?"

She was about to do it then paused and scowled at him. "Would you stop trying to lure me into your stupid magnetic field."

"What are you talking about?" asked Joey innocently. "Lure you into my magnetic field… don't be ridiculous!"

Renesme remained unconvinced of his good intentions. "Since you're doing so well you can go the rest of the way by yourself. I'll meet you at the car after school."

"_Yes, Ness,_" he replied in an annoying sing-song voice.

"Maybe I'll just let you walk back home," muttered Renesme irritably as they parted ways.

Joey chuckled to himself and continued to the Biology lab. He handed a slip of paper to the old, balding professor at the front of the room and took a seat at the empty workbench down the back end of the room. He could hear the other students murmuring to each other, wondering who he was; cheerfully he glanced around and favoured them all with a smile. Movement at the door made him look as the auburn-haired girl he'd backed into that morning walked into the classroom also stirring a few curious mutters from the other Biology students. He raised a brow; perhaps she was also a new student.

She confirmed his suspicions by handing the professor a slip identical to the one he'd just given in. The teacher motioned for her to sit with Joey.

The vampire caught the flash of bitter recognition in the girl's eyes as she glanced at him and then turned back to the professor to ask if there were any other available benches.

"Yeesh, bear a grudge much?" muttered Joey, unashamedly eavesdropping as the teacher shook his head and told her that the seat beside Joey was the only other one available.

Resignedly the auburn-haired woman made her way to the back of the room and sat down in the other seat, edging away as far as possible with the confines of the table.

Joey noticed this with an inward frown. _What's her problem?_

If only he had Edward's power. Before he realised what he was doing, he sighed. To his amazement his senses weren't overloaded by the perfume of his classmates' scents.

"Odd," he commented to himself.

The girl in the seat beside him threw him a dirty look and muttered something incomprehensible even to his superhuman hearing.

Realising that she thought he had meant her he hastily added, "I didn't mean you, I was just thinking out loud."

She rewarded him with a wary glare.

Feeling that he ought to do something to clear up whatever prejudice she had against him he held out his hand and introduced himself, "Look we got off on the wrong foot. I didn't mean to step on your feet before, it was an accident. I got a bit of a shock from the scen - the uh, number of students. Not really something I'm used to. Um, I'm Joseph Knight – you call me Joey."

She glanced at the offered hand and then turned to face the blackboard. "I don't associate with your kind."

"Your kind?" repeated Joey feeling somewhat offended.

She glared at him making it clear that she thought him to be an idiot. "You don't touch me and you don't talk to me. Got it, _vampire_?"

He stiffened at the last word, no longer feeling so worried about why she hated him and managed to get out a strangled, "Eh? V-vampire? What the hell are you taking about? Vampires don't exist." He forced out a nervous laugh.

She didn't smile back. She just turned away and drummed her perfect, oval nails impatiently on the surface of the table leaving Joey to watch her anxiously. Who was this redhead and just how the hell did she know about vampires? Well, he knew at least one thing was for sure; _Joey old boy, _he told himself silently, _your cover is blown and you are **screwed**._


End file.
